Thursday Apple Rumors: iPhone’s Q1 Global Market Share Slips

by Christopher Freeburn | May 16, 2013 1:02 pm

Thursday Apple Rumors: iPhone’s Q1 Global Market Share Slips

[1]Here are your Apple rumors[2] and AAPL news items for today:

Down: Apple‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL[3]) iPhone ceded ground to devices running Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG[4]) Android OS during the first quarter[5], AppleInsider notes. Industry research firm IDC says that the iPhone’s share of worldwide smartphone shipments fell from 23% during the first quarter of 2012, to 17% this year. By contrast, Android soared from 59% last year, to 75% during the first quarter of 2013. The boon for Android came despite a record 37.4 million iPhones shipped during the quarter. Also rising, albeit more slowly, was Microsoft‘s (NASDAQ:MSFT[6]) Windows phones, which hit 3.2% of global smartphone shipments during the quarter, surpassing BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY[7]) shipments, which declined from 6.4% last year, to 2.9% this year. The number of Windows phones shipped increased from 3 million during last year’s first quarter, to 7 million this year.

Winner: On Tuesday afternoon, the App Store recorded its 50 billionth app download[8], ABC News notes. The milestone was hit when Brandon Ashmore downloaded Say the Same Thing, a word game. The Mentor, Indiana, resident will receive a $10,000 gift card to use on the App Store, which will let him purchase a lot of gaming apps. Apple excludes app updates and re-downloads from its downloaded app total. The App Store debuted in 2008, offering just 500 apps. It now features more than 800,000 apps.

Appearance: The U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has scheduled Apple CEO Tim Cook to testify at a hearing on Tuesday[9], TheVerge notes. Cook is expected to discuss Apple’s large hoard of cash, which is mostly keep outside the U.S. in order to avoid taxes. Apple has been criticized by public commentators and some legislatures for its tax practices and overseas holdings. The company reported U.S. tax payments of $6 billion last year. Senior executive from Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ[10]) testified before the subcommittee last year.

For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors[11] stories.